What a great empowerment tool for patients! Read this article about how Dr. Wen works with her patients during visits to make sure their electronic records are accurate.

Smart Patient Takeaway: This is a great tool for patients who want to be sure their records are accurate, or have interest in seeing what their doctor is recording about them. (Hint – that should be everyone!) In addition, it sets the stage for a good partnership with your doctor.

Be sure you have the information you need to access your records from home, too. Then, each time you have a new appointment, or something changes in your record, log in to see what has been added or amended in your record.

If your doctor doesn’t let you share in the input and review process on your medical records, then take a copy of Dr. Wen’s article with you to your next appointment, then tell him or her you would like to participate in your record keeping, too.

Additional Idea: Using your smartphone, or a small handheld recorder, record your appointment with your doctor. This will allow you to listen back later to confirm that you remember new instructions and information. Tell your doctor you’ll be recording the session – politely, of course – but don’t ask permission. It is your right to record the session, and it’s a smart tactic, especially when information is easily confused. (Asking for permission provides the opportunity for the doctor to say “no”. Or, as Gramma used to say, “It’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”)

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Do you have advice or a story to share that illustrates this post? Please share in the comments below.

You mostly see them in airline magazines. But sometimes I see a banner or badge on a doctor’s website, or even a hospital’s billboard.

Big proclamations they are! Dr. Horatio P. Speshultee is a TOP DOCTOR as ranked by some organization or another. Or ST. HARELDA’S HOSPITAL has been ranked #1!

Oh really? Says who?

And, fellow patients, THAT is the key. WHO SAYS and HOW MUCH THEY PAID FOR THE RANKING is the most important part of all of this. Because if you are choosing hospitals or doctors based on such labels, the label originator and its purpose will have a huge impact on your ability to get the care you need. Making bad choices based on the wrong assumptions can only be trouble.

The author, Abigail Zuger, MD reviews an invitation to her 16-years-long-dead uncle to be considered a TOP DOCTOR ranking. Maybe he was a good doctor when he will still alive, but… ? A little suspect at the least.

I’ve seen these sorts of invitations before. I get them from some company called “Who’s Who” – I can be a Who’s Who in all kinds of great things – from business to marketing and maybe even patient empowerment (although I haven’t seen that one.) It’s a company that produces directories for those with an ego. If you fill out the paperwork, and pay a sum of money (not usually more than $79 or $89) then you TOO may be listed in that directory and get your very own copy of it!

Please note – no one is vetting this list. No one is looking to see if any real accomplishment is tied to it. You pay your money, you show up in the book. And you get to list all your accomplishments, dubious or not, true or not. These companies have been in business for decades, hawking their flattery and reeling in the profits. I can only think that it’s intent is solely to stroke egos. But hey – if it pays the bills… who am I to ask questions?

Well – maybe I’m exactly the one to ask… because when it comes to proclaiming these doctors are any good…. well then…. Continue reading

This post at Kevin MD made the rounds again last week. Written by Mary Pat Whaley, and entitled , “Your 10 minute office visit needs 8 people and 45 minutes of work” it describes all the background work that takes place before, during and after a doctor visit so that patients won’t be so surprised that their visit costs so much money.

It’s an important perspective for patients to understand, certainly. While most of us realize that there is much more that takes place behind the scenes than we are aware of, we really have no idea what it takes to support just one 10 or 15 minute appointment. This is a good overview, even if three years after it was first published, most of us experience it differently due to the shift to electronic records.

That said… to Mary Pat and others who want to defend that $100 charge – we patients still don’t get it, no matter what explanation has been provided.

We’ll ask you instead to look at it from our perspectives: We have just spent an hour in your office waiting for our drive-by visit with the only person we really came to see. Then you tell us it cost $100 for that 10-15 minutes, which we translate to $400 an hour for his or her time. Further, from our perspectives, all he did was ask a few questions, embarrass those of us with modesty issues, and then leave. We rarely feel any smarter. Some of us feel belittled and unworthy. And then we are expected to pay for the insult.

Suppose you were treated the same way by any other service you needed yourselves… What if your car mechanic treated you like that? Or your hairdresser? Or your accountant or lawyer? You know you would walk away, no matter how they justified those charges to you.

Think back 10 years. How old were you – or your kids or even your grandkids? (Did even have kids or grandkids then?) Did you live in the same place, or work for the same employer or do the same job you do now? Have you rearranged your living room furniture, or learned to use a computer, or even acquired a smart phone since then? In those days 9-11 was still fresh like it had been yesterday, no one (except Al Roker) had heard of a polar vortex OR Barack Obama, the New England Patriots were the reigning Superbowl Champions, and Usher, Outkast, Alicia Keys, Maroon 5 and Beyonce were at the top of the music charts. (And most of us had more hair, and weighed at least 10 lbs less than we do now.)

I ask, because 10 years ago today is the day I learned I had terminal lymphoma. Subcutaneous Panniculitis-Like T-Cell Lymphoma to be exact. I learned that fact while on the telephone with the surgeon who two weeks earlier had removed a golf-ball sized lump from my torso about 7 PM that evening, July 14, 2004, while I had a house full of dinner company.

It was an impossibility on that day, or over the next couple of months, to think I would be here writing something for all of you to read today. Beyond the fact that blogs were barely in existence on any topic then – I was supposed to be long dead.

That diagnosis changed my life in almost every way possible. It was the worst day of my life, but in the 10 years since, it became the turning point to the best life I could possibly have.

In case you don’t know the story – yes – I had been misdiagnosed. And I figured it out. And in fine “hell hath no fury” style – I chose to devote the rest of my life to helping others prevent the problems with their medical care that I had experienced myself.

I am, after all, a Proactive Survivor. And because I am, instead of dwelling on the horror of my medical experiences during those months in the summer of 2004, I will instead share with you what I have learned since then. Things I have practiced and practiced, preached and preached – and which can help you, too:

You found me! Here I am!

And I’m moving back in, here to my personal blog. Home. Where I started writing about Patient Empowerment in 2005.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been “home.” Look around! You can see how dusty it is. I’ve got to wash the curtains and get them back up. Clearly the place needs to be swept and vacuumed. Those are all tasks I’ll get squared away in the next few days. Give me a week and I may even get some new paint on the walls.

Are you wondering why I’ve moved back home?

Simple answer – it’s because I was sent packing.

Most of my regulars know about my work at About.com Patient Empowerment. I started writing for About.com in late 2007 and in all, I published more than 800 articles on topics from how to be an empowered patient, to how to get your medical records, to how to look up CPT codes, to how to deal with an arrogant doctors and much, much more. In addition to those 800 articles, I wrote more than 1000 blog posts! And I would still be writing and publishing there today… except that….

I was terminated June 30. Gone. Kaput. Right in the middle of my contract year. They decided they didn’t want me anymore and cut me off. Chop chop.

If you want details, here they are. But that’s not the point of this post.

This post is to tell you that I’m going to lead by example. That is – throughout my patient empowerment work, the advice I always give to you is to stick up for yourself and to be sure to take responsibility for the situation you’ve been dealt. Don’t take crap from anyone. YOU are the most important stakeholder in your own care and to get what you need, you need to take the lead.

So that’s exactly what I’m doing here. As much as I loved my work with About.com, it’s no longer an option. So I’m moving back home, gonna spiff up the place, and will begin publishing again right here to keep my commitment to helping you, my readers, get what you need from the healthcare system.

Here are some of my plans:

I’ll be writing articles just like I was writing them before – so – what topics would you like to see?

One of the recent changes About.com had made was to take away YOUR opportunity to comment on articles and blog posts. By publishing here, I’ll be restoring that capability. So please do comment! I learn from you every time.

In the past two years I was sending out only 5-6 newsletters a year from this personal site, but now that there will be no more newsletters coming from me at about.com* I’ll begin sending from here. You can help too, by letting your friends know. Here’s the link you need to get signed up.

Together we’ll weather the healthcare system together, whether About.com wants to help in that effort or not. I’m still Every Patient’s Advocate. They can’t take that away from me. And I’m here for you.

Are you with me? Great!

(Now could one of you big strong guys help me move my desk over there – under the window? It’s a beautiful day, and I don’t want to miss the sunshine.)

I’ll be back soon with some usable healthcare information. All suggestions welcome 🙂

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*about.com will likely continue to send patient empowerment newsletters, and for the foreseeable future, they will be my articles. But there will be nothing new that hasn’t been sent out in a newsletter previously. Feel free to unsubscribe if it gets to be redundant.